Risk magazine
A regulated new year
Regulators are widely expected to increase their oversight of the financial sector in the coming year, with derivatives likely to come under particular scrutiny. In the latest in the current series of Class Notes articles, Charles Smithson and Steve…
Brought to account
Conrad Hewitt, chief accountant of SEC, talks to Alexander Campbell
Portal combat
The first central clearing houses for credit default swaps were expected to start business at the beginning of December, but hold-ups in regulatory approval delayed the launch in the US. With four ventures now due to take off within months of each other…
Natixis job cuts fail to impress
Announcing 40% job cuts in its complex capital markets business failed to improve the reputation of the French bank Natixis, which has seen its shares and financial strength rating fall today.
Madoff fraud puts focus on due diligence
Several market players that had conducted due diligence on his firm told Risk that it had raised danger signals as far back as the late 1990s.
BoA names regional leadership positions
Bank of America (BoA) has appointed the regional heads that will take charge once its purchase of Merrill Lynch is complete, which is expected to be in the first quarter of 2009.
US muni debt now priced as riskier than corporates
Protection on US municipal debt is currently more costly than that on US investment-grade corporate bonds. Spreads on Markit's five-year MCDX index, which references credit default swaps (CDS) on municipal bonds, were at 275 basis points as of December…
Obama names next heads of SEC and CFTC
US president-elect Barack Obama has named the next leaders of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) following his call for "a 21st century regulatory framework to ensure a crisis like this can never…
SG names Wilson head of metals research
David Wilson has joined Société Générale as head of metals research.
S&P predicts defaults to snowball in 2009 and 2010
A fifth of European speculative-grade companies could default by 2010, a report released on Wednesday by Standard and Poor's (S&P) stated.
Isda prepares to settle Ecuador CDS
The International Swaps and Derivatives Association (Isda) is drawing up a settlement protocol for credit default swaps (CDS) based on the sovereign debt of Ecuador, which refused to make a $30.6 million scheduled interest payment last week.
EEX names Christoph Mura COO
Christoph Mura has become the chief operating officer (COO) of the Leipzig-based derivatives exchange, European Energy Exchange (EEX), effective January 1.
Hawaiian Telcom LCDS recovery set at 40.125%
A final price of 40.125% was set on cash-settled loan credit default swaps (LCDS) trades referencing Hawaiian Telcom during an auction today.
Citi rings the changes in structured products
Citi has announced a host of changes to its structured products business, including the appointment of Jean-Luc Bernardi as head of structuring for Europe, the Middle East and Asia (EMEA). Bernardi has developed and led the EMEA equity derivatives…
Morgan Stanley falls as losses continue
Morgan Stanley's shares fell 6.8% this morning after it announced heavy losses and continuing mortgage-related writedowns.
Fed's near-zero target startles markets
Yesterday's news that the US Federal Reserve would cut its target fund rate to between zero and 0.25% rallied US stocks and sent Treasury bill yields to new lows.
Mark to market needs refining, not scrapping - SEC
Christopher Cox, chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), backed fair-value accounting in a speech to the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants last week, but said some aspects, particularly rules on impairment, needed…
New York Fed buys AIG assets at half price
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York has paid $19.8 billion to troubled insurer AIG for residential mortgage backed securities (RMBS) with a face value of $39.3 billion.